In a pioneering study of Arabic and French literatures published in Cairo (1902–1904, 1904, 1912), the Ottoman-Palestinian intellectual Rūḥī al-Khālidī forges Arabic literary modernity in the crucible of comparison.

While the European and Ottoman empires that dominated North Africa and West Asia during this period frame his arguments, equally crucial is the eye of Africa. From Bordeaux, where he served as consul general of the Ottoman Empire from 1898–1908, al- Khālidī wrote not only his literary work but also historico-political studies (1903, 1907, 1910) of the Comoros Islands and the kingdom of Dahomey.

In this talk, Shaden Tageldin tracks the “footprints” of Africa in al Khālidī’s literary comparatism through the relationship he stages between Arabness and Africanness in these extra-literary writings.

Tageldin argues that al-Khālidī’s conception of a properly “modern,” “worldly,” and thus comparable literary language as at once transparent (clear) and telecommunicative (legible across distances) articulates Arabic as a medium both intimate with and inimical to two rival imperia: Europe and Africa.

This begs the questions: What would it mean to center Africa in a reinterpretation of the global politics by which the world’s languages and literatures came into comparative perspective in the long nineteenth century?

About the Speaker

Shaden M. Tageldin is associate professor of cultural studies and comparative literature in the Department of Cultural Studies and Comparative Literature (CSCL) at the University of Minnesota. She earned her Ph.D. in comparative literature from the University of California, Berkeley. From 2014–2018, she was the founding director of the African Studies Initiative, a Title VI African Studies National Resource Center at the University of Minnesota funded by the U.S. Department of Education, and a University-wide platform—interdisciplinary and intercollegiate—for Africa-related research, curriculum development, and outreach. She also has served as director of graduate studies for the Ph.D. programs in Comparative Literature and Comparative Studies in Discourse and Society as well as for the interdepartmental graduate minor in Moving Image Studies, and as curriculum coordinator for CSCL.

Interdisciplinary Research Colloquium

The Interdisciplinary Research Colloquium series offers informal lectures and discussions on current research projects by ICGC Scholars, affiliated faculty, visiting scholars, and practitioners. These events are open to the public. Guests are welcome to bring their lunches and eat during the sessions.